Headwaters
Where the basin begins — springs, seeps, and first-order streams.
Above the first gauge
Every basin starts small — a seep in a hillside, a spring under a fir, a trickle too thin to chart. We map these first-order streams because they carry most of a watershed's cold, clean water.
How we find them
lidar resolve channels down to 0.5 m springs walk the ridgeline with the state survey tribute classify first-order vs. ephemeral record one source per reach, forever
Why it matters
You cannot protect what you never drew. The headwaters on our maps are where the restoration money should go first.